Doctor Who Series 4 Episode 4 - The Sontaran Stratagem

I generally judge a good Doctor Who episode on how much I can moan about it. In this instance, it was almost a perfect 45 minutes of Doctor Who!

Okay, despite the UNIT boys wearing their berets wrong, I found it thoroughly entertaining! I’m not sure what Ryan Sampson was playing it, with that accent, but he played the kid-genius-you-just-want-to-slap, with perfection!

That’s where the story begins. Basically the kid genius has designed these new carbon-cutting devices, which have a free sat-nav system and clothes vouchers, apparently. Yep, you’ve guessed it – Primark! Anyway, despite being a qualified Doctor for less than a year, UNIT officer Martha Jones rings the Doctor to help out.

It was a rather clever plot to be honest. Gone are the days where the aliens would just turn up from nowhere without any explanation of how they got there. This is a lot better.

We learn that Martha is now engaged to Tom Milligan (the bloke who helped her out in ‘The Last of The Timelords’). I say engaged, I reckon she’s got some blackmail on the go, as he won’t know about the whole ‘lost year’ thing! So after a few well placed awkward moments, our trio head to a mobile base, which has been set up outside the ATMOS Sat-Nav factory.

The factory’s workers don’t seem to be in control of their capabilities, so Martha investigates. The Doctor goes to find Luke, where Ross’s (the young solider) description of the academy (which Luke runs) as a ‘type of Hitler youth camp’ is bang on. I suppose the Catholic Church have their pick of future Pope’s then! Donna buggers of home for a chat and a brew with ‘Gramps’!

Back to Luke’s, where The Doctor stumbles across a teleport and is transported to the Sontaran ship but as he quickly travels back, he is followed by their leader – General Staal. I was mightily impressed with these Sontarans, in fact, I would go as far as saying they are the best ever! The Doctor and Rambo Ross escape and as Staal fails to kill them with the Sat-Nav, they arrive at Donna’s house.

Meanwhile back at the base, Martha is kidnapped by the badly dressed soldiers and cloned, into ‘Mad Martha’ (I presume)! You would of thought that being on the run for a non-existence year, Martha would be more cautious, wouldn’t you? So as our MM totally ignores the Doctor’s warning, she lets events take their place and the sky is filled with poison gas, from the ATMOS machines. And as Bernard Cribbins steals the show again (It’s them aliens Donna!), he is trapped in one of the poisonous cars…

I hope next weeks’ will be just as good. I’ve normally panned Helen Raynor’s episodes, but she’s done a good job here! The effects where superb once again, it was nice to see the old Sontaran spaceships! And did anyone notice the ‘Turn Left’ references? You heard it here first, folks!

9/10

Don’t forget to watch the confidential too, they are very informative! And can I just say – Helen Raynor – any chance I could take you out for a drink?

Next Week – General Staal is caught in his underpants, ‘up to no good’ with Donna’s Mum.

The Poison Sky Trailer